Indigenes of Ossisioma Ngwa community in Abia State have instituted an N4.65billion suit against the Nigeria Petroleum National Corporation, NNPC, Pipelines Product Marketing Company, PPMC and Federal Government, before an Abia State High Court sitting in Ossisioma over the pipelines fire explosions that occured in the area on October 12, 2018.
The system 2E petroleum pipeline belonging to NNPC and managed by its subsidiary, PPMC, caught fire and exploded in the Ossisioma-Ngwa community of Abia State, resulting in a massive conflagration that burnt and destroyed several human/animal lives and properties in the community.
Vanguard reports that Alongside the human fatalities, the inferno caused blistering devastation to several residents of Umuaduru and Umuimo villages as well as residents of Uratta, Umuze and Njiko Umunna Autonomous Communities in Ossisioma Ngwa Local Government.
Counsel to the community, Messrs Joseph Otteh and Daniel Aloaye, of Access to Justice, a civil society organisation, in the suit are praying the court for an order for the payment of exemplary/aggravated damages against the defendants jointly and severally in the sum of N3billion and an order of special damages against the defendants, jointly and severally, in the sum of N15million.
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They are also praying the court to direct the defendants to pay the claimants jointly and severally the sum of N1.2billion as general damages to alleviate the unqualifiable physical, emotional, psychological trauma and agony the claimants have suffered following the pipeline fire explosions, owing to deliberate and/or negligent acts of the defendant.
Otteh in the suit noted that shortly after the fire and “Unfortunately, on October 20, 2018, the President Buhari, through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu issued a statement claiming that the explosions were likely caused by suspected oil thieves.
“This claim was made well before the Federal Government or the NNPC had conducted a thorough, impartial and independent investigation into the cause, manner and circumstances of the incident as required under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other International Treaties to which the federal government of Nigeria is a party, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“Since that unfortunate incident, nothing further, as far as Access to Justice is aware, has been published concerning that tragic event, either by the NNPC, PPMC or the Federal Government.
“All three parties have swept the matter under the rug, leaving thousands of people affected by the explosions, directly or indirectly, to bear alone the brutal and horrifying consequences of that calamity.
“Even the Federal Government which has a non-derogable duty to protect the lives of Nigerian people did not lift a finger to interrogate the role of the oil establishment in the unfortunate calamities, but chose to side with the impunity with which they behaved.”
